Alpha Ever After (Midnight Liaisons Book 5) (6 page)

And I’m mad at myself because deep down inside, I still want him.

“You should,” Sara says in a soft voice. “I know he worries about you and the baby.”

That makes my back go up. “Then he should have thought a little harder about that before he used me.”

She says nothing.

I sigh and touch my stomach. “I just…I need to talk to the doctor. About what the baby might be.”

Her brows furrow. “You mean like a boy or a girl?”

“I mean like a wolf or a cougar.”

“Oh.” She taps her pencil on her desk. “What are you going to do if it’s…you know? The wrong one?”

I shake my head, because I have no clue.

D
r. Lamb is
the shifter doctor. Part veterinarian, part family doc, he’s the one we all go to when we have problems. You can’t just go to a regular doctor for things if it can be avoided, because we tend to show weird stuff on blood tests. So we all go to Dr. Lamb.

And Dr. Lamb’s kind of a jerk. But that’s what happens when an otter-shifter’s in charge of family medicine. They’re not the most serious shifters on the block.

“So tell me which one you feel like chasing,” he says, and wiggles a stick in his left hand, and a furry mousie in his right. “Do you feel like a good boy or a bad kitty?”

I glare at him. “It’s a serious question.”

He chuckles and tosses the stick aside. “You’re grumpy. It must be a cat.”

I snarl at him.

“Seriously, though,” he says, picking up my chart. “We can run some blood tests and I can compare to the shifter charts to see if the make-up of the blood matches wolf or cat more closely. Beyond that, it’s just guessing. Babies don’t shift in the womb, or it’d make my job a lot easier.” He chuckles. “You wanna know if it’s a boy or a girl?”

“No,” I say glumly, wiping the petroleum jelly off my stomach from the sonogram. I tug my shirt down and sit up as he puts his equipment away. “As long as it’s healthy, I guess it doesn’t matter.”

“That’s right,” Dr. Lamb says in a cheery voice. “And I need you to take your pre-natals. You’ve been skipping them, haven’t you?”

“They make me barf.” Everything makes me barf, actually, but the prenatals are especially bad.

“Try taking them anyhow. Take it at night if you can’t stomach it in the morning, and make sure that you’re eating a lot of iron. I see that with a lot of my wolf mommies. We don’t want you becoming anemic, do we?”

I grumble a response. Wolf mommies. Shoot me now. “Anything else?” I ask as I slide off the table.

He makes a few marks on my chart. “I’m going to give you a prescription for the nausea, and I recommend you have a nice little chat with the baby daddy if you can.”

I frown at him. “What? Why?” He knows that I’m not with Connor.

Dr. Lamb can’t stop grinning. “Because you’re having twins. There’s two heart-beats in there.”

Oh jesus. I’m glad I’m sitting down when I hear that, because the world spins around me.

Twins.

I haven’t been able to fathom how I’m going to take care of one baby on my own. How am I going to handle two?

* * *

I
head back
to work in a daze. My brother Austin’s sitting at my desk when I get back to the office, and Ramsey’s sitting at Sara’s desk. He glowers at me when I come in, but I ignore it. “Where’s Sara?” I set my purse down on my desk and lean heavily on one corner.

“She’s taking pictures of a new client,” Austin says, wiggling his brows at me. “She’s a fox.”

“Is she really a fox, or is she just sexy?”

“Legit fox,” Austin says. He leans back in my chair and props his feet on the corner of my desk. “Though she’s not hard on the eyes, either. Where ya been?”

“Doctor,” I say. The moment I do, Austin jumps up from his chair and gestures that I should sit down. Normally I’d roll my eyes, but I’m feeling so miserable that I sit without protest.

“You okay?” Austin presses his hand to my forehead. “Are we putting too much on you with the Primordials? Do I need to talk to Beau?”

I shake my head. “Diarmid and the others are good guys. They’re no trouble.”

“You say that, but when I came in, you had a slice of janky-looking pizza on your desk,” Austin cautions.

I smile, because Diarmid sure hasn’t given up on the idea of being my baby’s father.
Babies
, actually. The thought makes me dissolve into tears. “Maybe I should take him up on it. I’m having twins, Austin.”

“Oh fuck,” my brother breathes. “Seriously?”

“Yeah.” I don’t tell him that I worry they’re going to be twin wolves. God. I’m having a
litter
. I clutch my stomach miserably.

“Savvie, I know I’m just your brother, but you know I have your best interests at heart, right?”

I nod, wiping at my cheeks.

“Then maybe it’s time you do find a mate,” he says.

My eyes widen. “One of the Primor—“

He shakes his head and cuts me off. “No! God, no. Look, I love the guys, but they’re nowhere near ready to have a mate and a family. They’re in there right now eating gummy worms and watching a Disney movie. I brought my three to hang with yours. Until they’re ready to hold down jobs and can do more than try to molest every woman they see, we can’t have them mingling with the public.”

He’s right. Taking one of the Primordials as a mate would just give me three people to take care of instead of helping me. I can’t imagine who else he’s referring to, though. “Do you mean going through the agency?”

Austin shakes his head again. “One of the Portland cougars is coming down to work on a project here in Fort Worth,” he begins.

“Oh, Austin, no,” I say, raising my hands. Just the thought of another man is enough to make my sensitive stomach churn all over again. “No one wants a girl in my condition—“

“That’s just it,” Austin says, grabbing one of my hands and squeezing it. “He knows about you and he doesn’t care. He’s ready to settle down and have a family. He’s forty and no mate. Nice guy. Stable job. Works in finance. Wants to buy a nice cabin with some land so his family can have their own running grounds. Private running grounds like we have at home. And you know the house is super crowded right now.”

It is. The Russell ranch normally holds all seven Russell cougars, but in the last year Jeremiah and Josh moved out with their mates, Bathsheba (Beau’s mate) moved in, Ellis’s mate Lily did, too… and so did twenty-three Primordials. Considering we only have five bathrooms, things get hectic at times. I’ve wondered how I’m going to handle having a baby at the house.

If I had a house of my own, maybe it wouldn’t be a problem.

But I can’t mate a guy just because I want a house. I shake my head. “Austin, I don’t know.” Forty just seems…so old. I’m in my early twenties.

“Just think about it, okay? He wants to meet the local shifters and run with us. If you don’t like him, we can tell him to buzz off. ”

“I’ll think about it,” I tell him. I don’t want to think about it at all, but now I have to make decisions for the two in my stomach now, too.

* * *

I
’m still thinking
about it a week later when I smell an unfamiliar were-cougar at the grocery store. He’s not Primordial - they have an unusual, earthy scent to them that can’t be replicated. This is definitely cougar. I sniff the air even as I pull the box of Frosted Flakes out of Eoghan’s hands and put it in the cart. “You can’t eat that until we pay for it.”

“That is a puny looking sabertooth,” he tells me with disgust.

“That’s Tony the Tiger,” I correct, and look around. I’ve lost a Primordial. “Where’s Galen?”

Eoghan shrugs and pulls another box of cereal off the shelf, running his tongue along the top of it. “Grazing, I think.”

“Oh no, no no no,” I mutter. “Stay here, okay? I’m going to go get him.” Grabbing my purse, I head for the produce. Sure enough, tall Galen is examining oranges and chewing on a cucumber. He’s got a sack of potatoes under one arm and I can see spilled fruit all over the floor of the produce section. An employee glares nearby and a shocked soccer mom pushes her cart away from the tall man as quickly as she can.

Just what I needed.

“Galen, sweetie,” I say, grabbing his arm. “You can’t eat things until you buy them.” I put the potatoes back on the nearest counter. “And you should wash all fruits and vegetables before eating them.”

“Why?” He asks, and takes another hearty bite of his cucumber.

“Because they might be dirty.”

He raises an eyebrow at me. “Why?”

“Because no one cleaned them before sending them to the store.”

“Why?”

Oh my god, I’m not cut out to be a mother, because right now I want to punch a Primordial. I snatch the cucumber out of his grip and take his hand, dragging him back toward my abandoned shopping cart and Eoghan. At least the meat-eaters don’t rip into the packages. The vegetarian Primordials are more laid back - and have a harder time grasping the rules.

Before I can make it back to Eoghan, I turn the corner and nearly run into someone else’s shopping cart. “Excuse me,” I say quickly. “I—“ The scent of cougar touches my nose again and I stop in surprise, getting a good look at the man I nearly ran down.

“Hi there,” the man says with a smile. “You must be Savannah.”

I must? Then again, there probably aren’t a lot of pregnant female were-cougars running around the area. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’m the only one. “Hi,” I say, flustered. I smooth my free hand through my hair and then offer it to him. “I am. Savannah Russell, that is. And you are…”

“Craig Sorkin,” he says, taking my hand in his.

I try not to notice that his grip is a little weak. He seems nice enough, with an easy face and salt and pepper hair. He’s got laugh lines, which are nice, and he’s dressed well. His cart has only a few things in it. “I take it Austin mentioned me to you?”

“He did. Your brother’s a great guy.” His gaze strays to Galen, an obvious question in his eyes.

Oh. Right. I smile and put a hand on Galen’s shoulder. “This is Galen. He’s a…student I’m helping out.”

Just then, Eoghan comes around the corner with my shopping cart. He’s eating a bagel with exaggerated motions of his jaw.

“Annnnd there’s my other student,” I say, rushing forward. I snatch the bagel out of Eoghan’s hands and shove it back into the open plastic bag, then shoo him away from the cart. This is awkward.

Craig just chuckles. “I see you’ve got your hands full.”

I give him a grateful look. “You have no idea.”

“I’m hungry,” Eoghan protests.

“See that counter over there?” I say, pointing at the bakery. “Go and ask the woman there for a cookie.” They keep them mostly for little kids, but I’ve no doubt that two big good looking guys can score a free treat. Both Primordials head over there, and I give Craig an awkward smile. “It’s a little chaotic at times.”

“Are they special needs?” he asks in a gentle voice.

Umm. Not in the way he thinks. I decide to change the topic. “So how are you liking Texas?”

“It’s hot here,” he says. “But a lot of good people.”

That’s code for ‘lots of shifters’. Our area of North Texas has the largest shifter population in the US. I nod. “There are. So you moved here for a job?”

He grins and launches into a spiel about corporate accounting and a new division that needed his expertise. I try to look interested as he tells me all about corporate jargon and politicking, but I’m a little bored…and I’m trying to watch Eoghan and Galen out of the corner of my eye without seeming obvious. The girl at the bakery counter is flirting with them, and I can hear her giggles from over here as she gives them bites out of all kinds of sweets.

I hope I’m not going to have to pay for all of those.

“So when is the big day?” Craig asks.

“Hm?” Oh, my baby. Babies. I put my hand to my stomach. “Not for another four months. Did my brother mention it’s twins?”

Instead of being frightened, his eyes light up. “Really? I’ve always wanted a big family. It gets lonely by yourself.”

Point in his favor. I find my smile returning. “There are a lot of us here, so you’ll be more than welcome at any family occasions we happen to have. I’m pretty sure my cousin Beau’s planning a barbecue next weekend. You’re welcome to come along if you like.”

“I’d love that.” He tilts his head. “Will you be there?”

I nod, feeling shy. It’s been months since I’ve felt pretty - hard to feel pretty when you’re constantly puking and things on your body are swelling out of proportion. But Craig’s attention is doing wonders for my wounded ego. “Give me your number and I’ll send you a text with the address.”

We exchange phones and contact information, and then I make my excuses and round up my two charges. Eoghan leaves the bakery with a bag of donuts and Galen leaves with a phone number - not that he knows what to do with it. I herd them toward the checkout, lost in thought. I’m not sure how I feel about Craig. He seems like a nice guy, but talking to him about dating feels…like betrayal. I’m not sure what to think.